Permanently Erasing an XD Picture Card

[espressotalk]

Hi everyone!

I am selling my Olympus XD card and need to erase all images. I shoot stock images and don't want anyone taking credit for my work.

I know that formatting a memory card does not permanently delete photos.

How would you make the files unrecoverable? Will shooting other photos and formatting again do the job or can they still be recovered?

Any help is appreciated!

[Photo-John]

Personally, I think you're worrying too much. But you're right about formatting. I've formatted a card and still been able to get photos off of it with the Lexar file recovery software (thank God!). I'm not sure how to actually wipe the card clean so there are no recoverable image files. You might have to ask the FBI for that information

I think the likelihood of someone stealing one of your cards is pretty slim, though. It's not something I would worry about. But just out of curiosity, have your images been stolen before? Has someone taken them right off of one of your memory cards? That would be a huge violation and I would be very angry if it happened to me.

[espressotalk]

Hi, thanks for the reply

A friend of mine had his stock photo stolen after selling his cards on ebay. I just want to take better precautions.

[Photo-John]

A friend of mine had his stock photo stolen after selling his cards on ebay. I just want to take better precautions.

Ohhhhh - I can see that might be a problem.

I was thinking about this after I posted. The thing to do would be to do a test. I would format the card and then see what can be recovered with file recovery software. Then I'd format it again and take a bunch of photos with the lens cap on to see if that displaced all the old data. I think if you filled the card with black photos, or even filled it with a bunch of huge, useless Photoshop files, that would effectively bump the old image files. But you'd need to test to see if it worked.

There probably is a way to completely wipe a drive or card clean. I would ask IT experts about that. In fact, I'll check with my IT guy here at the office and see if he knows anything.

[espressotalk]

I will try that. I think I will shoot some video with my p&s camera a couple of times to fill the card to capacity that should write over the entire card.

Thanks for your advice!

[SmartWombat]

Programs are available that will really, really format the disk.
They write all 0 through the whole card, then all 1, then format it.
It's hard to get the images out of that !

Like LEXAR Image Rescue...
Product Highlights

* Recovers images from any brand or type of memory card, using any mass storage reader
* Recovers popular image file formats, including JPEG, TIFF, and RAW
* Includes card reformatting, secure deletion, and overall card health check features
* Comes bundled on Lexar 133x CompactFlash® and SD™ Professional memory cards
* Compatible with CF Type I and II, SmartMedia™, Memory Stick®, MS Pro™, MS Pro Duo™, SD, MMC, and xD memory formats
* Works with PC or Mac

[freygr]

Hard disks are harder to ease than memory cards. Memory cards just format, then write a file or files to fill the card.

[Rocket_Scientist]

One thing you might consider... take some worthless, but hopefully large, photo, or any file, make several copies of it in a folder on your hard drive, until you have used up enough space to fill the card, and then copy the files to the card. After that, erase the card, and even format it. If you succeed in filling the card with non-photo data, it is not likely any underlying photos can ever be recovered.

[Sorry... I posted this before I realized someone else had already recommended essentially the same thing.]

[readingr]

Sorry missed this.

The only secure way of deleting files on any media is to overwrite it with random 0's and 1's 32 times.

Try using this utility whihc is freeware:

http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dleraser.html

This will guarantee that the data cannot be recovered.

Delete all the files first and then use the tool to erase all space on the card.

Roger